Month: September 2016

We moved into our fifth wheel last October after we sold our big country home. We had been looking at trailers for weeks but by the time we sold the house it seemed as if we had run out of time and needed to purchase one quickly. Jeff found ours on Craigslist for $2,000, which we thought was a pretty good deal. The fifth wheel is a 96′ model, faded teal carpet, padded window coverings, carpet in the bathroom and awful wallpaper galore. It pretty much looked like the nineties threw up everywhere.

We lived in the trailer from October-March, up until we took off on the road. In those five months we were saving up money for our trip and making sure some of our bills were paid so we didn’t do too much to the trailer. We lived with the trashy carpets and I dealt with not unpacking decor and the rest of my kitchen. However, I did make sure we got rid of that yucky carpet in the bathroom. I just don’t understand why carpet is laid into bathrooms?! We also needed some more storage space, so Jeff built us a really nice bed with a storage compartment underneath and while he was at it he tore out the ugly carpet and put in pergo in our bedroom. We chose to use the cheapest pergo wood flooring that we liked for our bedroom as the bed takes up about 80-90% of the room so you can’t see much of the floor anyways. Then before we knew it, it was time to leave for our trip so the fifth wheel was parked over at my dads.

We pulled the trailer over to Jeff’s parents a few weeks ago and demolition started a week or so later. The gross carpet was the first thing we pulled up and the amount of dirt piled up underneath was unbelievable, yuk! I’m just so happy to see that ugly stained carpet gone! We also knew we had a bit of a water leak on the inside of one of the walls, so that was Jeff’s first big challenge to tackle. As he pulled the wall panel off we realized it was more than just a ‘little’ water leak and turned into a much bigger project. He found moldy insulation under one of the panels he had ripped off so he continued to investigate only to find more mold. He ended up replacing two walls and insulation before we started texturing. To ensure we wouldn’t have anymore issues with leaking, Jeff rubber coated our roof and thoroughly went around the outside re-sealing all of the seams.

Icky water damage

One of the walls we replaced

Texturing the walls was the next big step for us to tackle. We had a lot of holes and areas where the vinyl wallpaper was peeling up. I’ve never done any hole patching before, Jeff usually does all that kind of stuff but I learned quickly and had a lot of fun helping. We decided to texture the walls instead of just painting over the wallpaper as the texture gives a more ‘real’ home like feel. It took a few practice tries with the texture before we felt confident enough with rolling it on all of our walls. Jeff handled it just like a pro though! We painted all of our cabinets and walls, tore down the padded window coverings and even painted the couple of the doors we have inside the place.

But, my most favorite project we tackled in the trailer was our reclaimed wall. My dad does a lot of wood working and collects wood from all sorts of places, he gave us some old cedar fencing that was beautifully weathered. The wood came to us already torn apart (thanks Dad!!) so I sanded each of the planks and made a paint wash for a few boards as Jeff cut and nailed them up. The wall turned out so amazing, I’m quite proud of ourselves. I’m actually really proud of Jeff, he’s been working so hard on this renovation and doing such a great job too. There has only been so many things I have been able to help with. Either my back hurts, my hands are too swollen, having a weekly flare up or I’m just too tired. Jeff is an incredible husband, always making sure I don’t over do it and that I’m feeling well. He’s done a great job in our little home, I can’t wait to move back in.

Tearing stuff down

Look at that gross carpet!

Yay! No carpet and there’s new paint

Prepping the reclaimed wood

Jeff hard at work

More photos to come once we are completely finished with the place. We’re getting real close!!

I’m back in action! Apparently tape and rubber bands aren’t a proper means for fixing broken computer chargers… We’ve been quite busy since we returned back to Idaho from our big adventures. Jeff and I left in March with Vanna, a little van we converted into our own camper, a van we would soon come to call home. We left with so many emotions in tow; fear, excitement, anxiety, etc… No one could have told us what we were about to experience, we were in for the ride of our lives. It’s hard to believe that a year ago we were selling our home, six months ago we were heading out on the road and just a couple of weeks ago we were starting the renovation on our ‘tiny home’.

We left our busy lives behind and headed into an unknown territory of exploration. Jeff and I started our adventures by traveling SE to Florida, onto California and up the west coast from there. We saw so much in the six months we were out there yet there is still so much more to be seen. Many National Parks, wild animals, birds, crashing waves of the ocean, the clearest blue waters, and some of the biggest trees in the world. However, some of the best parts of our trip though were all of the times spent with the family we don’t get to see often.

While on this first trip of ours, we learned so many things, we learned more about ourselves and each other, how to live frugally, and most importantly how to live harmoniously in a small space. So, what’s next for this crazy couple!? Well, our adventures are far from over, from how we see it they have just began. Now that we are back in Idaho, Jeff will soon be looking for work again. (Can’t travel far without a nice wad of cash in your pocket) And we are going to start the remodeling of our fifth wheel. We dream of turning it into a lovely tiny home that we will be able to take with us on any future explorations. So no more van life for us, it’s now time to take on the tiny living movement.

We embarked out on our last leg of our adventures a couple of weeks ago. A journey full of excitement yet also bitter sweet, the van we had come to love and call home the past few months had died and we knew the road would be ending soon. With Vanna now out of commission, tent camping was our only option if we wanted to continue exploring, so we packed up all of our things into my tiny car Bessie and left the van behind.

Tent camping had me worried, sleeping on the hard ground with my back and chronic pain but I couldn’t let that stop me from having a good time, it already stops me from a lot of other things. We ensured I had plenty of padding for my side of the bed though so I was feeling a little more encouraged. Our first stop was my families annual camp out up at Silver Creek Plunge here in Idaho. We’ve been going up there for years, some years we have everyone up there and others it’s just a small group. This year we had a smaller group and celebrated my cousin’s 40th birthday as well. In the late summers as the forests get drier here, we generally get a few big forest fires which end up to campers not being able to have campfires in dispersed sites. So, this year we ended up not being able to have fires while we were up at Silver Creek since we don’t camp at the actual campground. It’s not a huge deal for us but I know some of the kiddos were a little bummed. My cousin is pretty resourceful though and figured out ways every night to make our nightly desserts! We also ended up having a camp visitor every night, a sly little skunk. The first night he was noticed, our Grandma saw him first as she saw the garbage sack being dragged away ever so slowly. Then we started looking for him every time the sun started to go down and sure enough, that sly skunk was there trying steal garbage or someones dropped hot dog.

We left camp after four fun days spent with my family and headed north. We knew we couldn’t make all the way to Northern Idaho all in one day, nor did we want to, so we stopped in the McCall area. Jeff and I have camped in the area many times, he and his dad also come up to the area often for hiking. We ended up camping near Hazard Lake and stayed for a couple of nights. Our spot was secluded enough for showering yet we still saw a car or two pass every few hours. We set out on a hike one afternoon thinking we were heading to one set of lakes only to realize we were on the wrong trail and the lake we were headed to was twice as far. That day my back and hips were in no condition to continue on so we turned around disappointed we never made it to the lake. Our day however was ended quite well with an elk and her companion coming into the near-by meadow as we were headed to bed. She called to her friend several times before they were completely out of sight. And in the middle of the night as we slept, deer came sniffing our tent and running around our camp. That’s one neat thing about tent camping is being so close to nature.

Jeff and I had every intention of being on the road for a handful of weeks, getting up to Glacier National Park and then down to Yellowstone as well. But, after a good conversation about our finances and the mileage we’d be putting on the car (it’s on lease), we decided it would be smarter for us to hold off on going to the parks. This traveling thing isn’t going to end after this summer, this is only the beginning of a new way of life for us, so Glacier and Yellowstone will just have to be visited on another time. However, we did decide that going all the way to Northern Idaho was a must. Living in Idaho all of our lives, we’ve never traveled north, we had to see what all the hubbub was about.

We drove clear into the panhandle of Idaho and spent the next few days exploring through Couer d’Alene, Sandpoint and then into Bonners Ferry. We camped near the Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge, which was really nice. Lots of birds have found sanctuary in the area, especially wild turkeys. We also came across two cow moose, one of them was with her calf too! Our camping spot was next to a creek, Trout Creek I believe, we didn’t hike around much but we did walk up and down the dirt road several times trying to work off our dinner. We enjoyed Northern Idaho, the farther north we got we definitely saw why everyone raves about how beautiful it is.

We drove into Missoula, MT after our Northern Idaho exploration. After about 40 minutes of driving down a dirt road, we finally found a camping spot along a beautiful river. They had a few particular rules for dispersed camp sites given the amount of bears seen in the area. One of the rules that I found a little different from something we’re use to was that they require you to set up your tent / sleep 50 feet or less from the fire ring. Montana was very pretty, ‘rugged’ would be a great way how to describe it. The river we camped next to was so pretty, Jeff was desperate to fish it but didn’t have a Montana license, so he settled for chasing minnows instead. The day we left we ran into a herd of big horned sheep crossing the highway. A young one, just barely old enough to trot, wobbled across the road with his family and up onto the hillside. Jeff and I still have yet to see a ram but hope to someday.

On on our way home, we traveled through the Eastern Idaho on our way back to Marsing. The drive back could have been again made in one long day, but when you’re squeezed in a tiny car and not comfortable in the van, we made it into a couple of days. Our first stop was overnight at Birch Creek Campground, a free dispersed site a few miles long just right off the freeway. It’s more of a sagebrush and deciduous tree kind of campground and definitely not the kind we’re use to, but it really wasn’t too bad at all. We planned on staying two nights there, however as the sun set we noticed smoke rolling in from a nearby fire and when we awoke the smoke had come in even more we could barely see the sky or breathe, so we packed up and left. Jeff and I stopped at the Camas National Wildlife Refuge to do a little more birding and hopefully find another moose. I think we came a little too late in the year for this refuge as most of the ponds besides one main one were all dried up and so were most of the fields. We did see a ton of water fowl though. We ended up staying our last night on the road at 1000 Springs Resort in Hagerman. Jeff and I have seen the place before and I have wanted to stay but we usually don’t pay for camping, however we decided to splurge this once since it was our last night on the road. Besides us, there was only one other couple tent camping, it was really peaceful. The resort is right on the Snake River and Thousand Springs is across the river and visible from the several docks. We had a great time, sunset was beautiful, their pool was nice and it was just a great way to spend our last night.

Life on the road with Bessie definitely wasn’t as easy as living in Vanna, not that van life was easy either but car life is quite different. No easy stops at Walmart for the night because we drove too long to look for camping. In a car, you have to drive to find camping or you’re stuck sleeping upright in the front seats of your car. The cooler isn’t as easily accessible as before, so more stops for snacks. Even Manko was cramped in the car, she had to lay on the floor board at my feet on passenger side since the car was so packed, before she had the whole back of the van to herself. We made it though and we enjoyed our last couple weeks out on the road.